Did a Student or a Bot Write That Assignment?
The sooner you embrace the truth that you’ll never be able to stay up to date on all of the latest technology, the happier you’ll be.
While I consider myself an alpha adopter who loves to play on the bleeding edge of tech, I know that I can’t see and touch it all, and I’m ok with that. I also know that my students and colleagues will try new technology before and long after I do.
I’m collecting my thoughts and sharing them in the hopes of helping others.
Artificial Intelligence is something that has scared generations. Skynet and the impending overthrow by our robot minions don’t concern me, as I’ll be dead long before that happens. But, the waves of people blindly feeding/teaching these new AI tools without thinking about what that means do concern me.
Over the last year, I’ve played a lot with the newest AI image generators, such as Midjourney and Dall-E-2. I use them to take the vibrant images in my head and create something I don’t have the talent to do. The image above was created by my AI Art Assistant, as I like to call them specifically for this post.
Debates are happening now around if these are ethical or not. I’m comfortable with how I’m using them, but I do understand the concern. Chuck Wendig wrote a great post about this recently, and there is tons of conversation happening online around it.
Recently, ChatGPT made waves as more people realized the power of AI-based text generators. Give it a writing prompt, and it’ll write you an answer. Give it an author style you want it written in, and it’ll deliver.
This morning I saw that the popular content creation tool Canva unveiled its version of this called Magic Write. I didn’t expect this tech to go mainstream so quickly, but you can be sure now that they opened up the box others will follow suit.
I asked the tool to “tell me about C.C. Chapman,” and a second later, it wrote this:
“C.C. Chapman is an internationally recognized speaker, author, and creative consultant. He has worked with some of the world’s leading brands, from American Express to Microsoft. He is the founder of the Digital Dads podcast, and the author of Content Rules and Amazing Things Will Happen. He is also the co-founder of the popular podcast network, The Advance Guard. C.C. is passionate about helping individuals and organizations understand how to use storytelling and content to reach their goals. He is a sought-after keynote speaker, and a regular contributor to various publications, including The Huffington Post and Entrepreneur Magazine.”
Now, a lot of that is correct, and it did a good (not great) job writing a boring bio of myself. The key is that many of the details are not quite right. Anyone who knows me will get a kick out of the little mistakes the AI made.
As I finish my semester’s grading, I’m already looking toward the spring. I know my students will learn about these tools, and some will choose to use them for the assignments I give. What I’m trying to determine is how to approach that.
Part of me wants to address it on day one in the class and my syllabi. I refuse to be the professor who, 15 years ago, insisted they had to go to the physical library to do their research and not use some fancy new tool called a search engine.
The wise advice of one of my college professors pops into my mind, “give me the right answer, and you get a B. Tell me why that is the answer and how you feel about it, and you get the A.” Right now, AI is going to deliver the bare minimum, but it isn’t going to get creative.
Trust me, students who care more about passing the class than learning will use these tools. Your brightest students will use them as a starting point and then make the assignments their own and better to save time.
Technology enables us to do more. It helps us skip over mundane tasks and focus on other things. I love it for that.
Humans will always look for shortcuts, especially for something they don’t care about or want to do.
Combine those two things, and it is obvious that AI tools are here to stay and will be used by individuals and organizations alike. How, when, and why they are used is still to be seen.
I’m using AI tools to help me with my ideas, and I have a friend using them to illustrate comic books. Students will use them to write papers and college essays. Brands will use them for all of the above and more.
No matter how good these tools get (and they will get VERY good), I firmly believe that we are far from the day when humans can’t do better. Our brains are powerful machines that we barely understand all the details of.
Artists will always create. Writers will always tell stories.
Now, do you know if an AI or C.C. wrote this? Something to ponder on, isn’t it?
